2 Stocks to Benefit From Wild Oil Price Volatility in 2015

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Volatile oil prices are driving significant gains for CME Group ( CME) and Intercontinental Exchange ( ICE) on the back of a surge in trading activity, and this is one trend that's likely to continue for at least the near term, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs.

CME Group shares have risen 3.95% to $86.44 since the Nov. 27 OPEC meeting, after which oil prices fell more than 10% when the cartel was unable to agree on production cuts. ICE shares are up 2.6% to $226.58 over the same time period while the S&P 500 has fallen 0.2%.

"Volatility in oil prices is good for trading volumes and thus exchanges," wrote Goldman Sachs financial sector analysts in a report published Thursday, highlighting broad themes for investors to focus on in 2015.

Crude oil volatility has been on the decline for much of 2014 and is still down 20% year to date versus a year ago, according to Goldman's analysts.

However, they expect volatility to "remain elevated in the near term given uncertainty around when production growth will finally begin to decelerate."

CME and ICE also benefit from volatility in other products, of course, including stocks and interest rates. But most financial products have seen little volatility, which is why shares of CME and ICE have underperformed the S&P 500 over the past 12 months.

Goldman analyst Alexander Blostein recommends ICE with a $235 12 month price target. He is neutral on CME with a $74 target, according to data complied by Bloomberg. Follow @dan_freed